Can You Keep A Secret?
by NeverSayNever95
Summary: Yet another fluffy way for James and Lily to get together. Lily has a secret, and she hopes to Merlin that James doesn't figure it out...or anyone else for that matter.


**So my friend will probably be mad that I posted this instead of the chapter of "Do You Know Where Your Heart Is" I told her I was working on, but for some reason I decided to finish this. Not sure why, since it's something I started last year and had actually never intended to post, but I think it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. But anyways, on with the show!**

You would never peg me, Lily Evans, Head Girl of Hogwarts, as a person who kept a lot of secrets, but it's the cold hard truth. For example, I've never told anyone about my friendship with a certain greasy haired Slytherin, although the end of that particular relationship had been quite public, may he rot in hell. I've also never told anyone that I have a sister, because that would mean talking about the fact that said sister hates my guts, which would just be uncomfortable for all involved.

But of course my best friend Hestia Jones knows all of _these _secrets. There are some, though, that even she doesn't know. And these secrets all invariably included the Marauders. Some of them are trivial things, like the fact that I actually found Sirius' raunchy jokes quite entertaining, or that Peter is the only Marauder who I don't really like, because really? What innocent person is that quiet?

Some are life changing, like the fact that I know about Remus' "furry little problem", and the rest of the Marauders still don't know I know. Or the fact that recently I've been developing feelings for a certain messy-haired git that could potentially ruin our newly formed friendship. Especially now that he's apparently gotten over me and is now going out with some skanky Hufflepuff sixth year.

So yeah, I have some secrets, and living with James is not making them any easier to deal with. I'll never know what possessed Dumbledore to make Potter, of all people, Head Boy. Not that I'm bitter or anything, but it's probably the only reason I even have that last secret. If this year had gone normally, I would have remained blissfully ignorant of the fact that James Potter was now a mature human being. But no, I just have to have the worst bloody luck in the entire universe, and now I'm in the same position that James was in for six years. Damn.

And just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, I realized that James was asleep on our couch, so I couldn't study peacefully by the fire like I'd planned. James was rarely in our common room lately, so it was purely "Lily-luck", as Hestia had so lovingly named it, which found him ruining my evening.

_Oh well, I guess I'm studying in my room tonight. Now, to get past him without waking him up._

I was almost there, too, when I managed to slip on the git's broom and crash into the stairs, knocking over a side table and sconce in the process. After fixing everything with my wand, I turned around for the inevitable conversation with James, only to find him still asleep. He hadn't even moved!

Typical boy.

_Well if he can sleep through that, there's no way I'm staying in my room. Screw it._

So after retrieving my books, some parchment, ink, and a quill, I found myself in an armchair close to the fireplace, and as such, close to the couch. But studying near James Potter had a definite downside: I couldn't keep my traitorous eyes off of him.

As I stared at his face, peaceful in his deep sleep, I contemplated the reasons behind my biggest secret.

I guess it had always been sort of inevitable that I would fall for him. I mean, he was my type personified, from his adorably messy black hair, to his piercing hazel eyes, to his fit body…hell, he was most girls' type. But at least before now I'd been able to avoid the "aww, what a cute couple!" comments by saying that I couldn't stand him, he was so immature, and I would never go out with him.

Of course, now none of those things applied, and I was about ready to kill myself from the tension that only I felt. Especially if he didn't shut up about his girlfriend. Stupid, slutty, black haired, blue eyed, beautiful, tall, opposite of me Ellen Stone.

And why did I have to listen to all this, you might ask? Because my idiotic, newly-seventeen self had decided to be mature and try to be friends with this new James Potter. Now I was his go-to for all things having to do with girls. Double damn.

I finally tore my eyes from his face, which I couldn't help but notice looked odd without his glasses, and decided to actually do my homework. Of course, this led to humming, a habit that all my friends found annoying as hell, but that I couldn't kick. I tried not to read anything into the fact that my subconscious was choosing to hum "Can't Help Falling in Love". Merlin, I hated clichés.

"Seriously, Lil, with the humming?" I heard a deep voice say, slightly husky from sleep.

"Oh, for the love…!" I shouted in surprise as I spilled my ink all over my jeans. _Seriously, with the nickname? You're killing me! _

"That _actually_ woke you up? I came in tripping over all your Quidditch crap about an hour ago and you didn't even move." I replied, cleaning up my mess before smirking over at him.

"Yeah, well, I have a weird head, and you woke it up. What were you humming, anyway? I don't recognize it."

"Um," _crap, _"just a muggle song. I didn't even realize I was doing it, sorry. It's my favorite song…"

"Huh, I wonder why I've never heard it then. Anyways, you know the drill." He said with a crooked smile.

It was times like this that I hated our routine. Whenever James caught me humming he would ask me for the name of the song, to "make sure I wasn't listening to complete crap". Sirius did it too, but it was never this embarrassing.

"Uh, 'Can't Help Falling in Love'" I replied reluctantly.

"That's your favorite song? I thought you hated love songs." He said perplexedly.

"Well, yeah, Petunia and Vernon effectively ruined them all for me, but you can't hate The King."

After a brief pause, he said, "There isn't a single part of that sentence that I understood."

"Sorry, I forgot you're a pureblood," I laughed, "The King is Elvis Presley, the guy who wrote the song." Maybe he'll ignore my slip-up about my sister. Usually I was good about ignoring her existence, but I guess being forced to attend her wedding this past summer had taken a bigger toll than I'd thought.

"Oh. But what do flowers and vermin have to do with your hate of all songs sweet and sappy?"

Of bloody course not, although I'd have to tell Hestia about James misinterpretation to cheer her up next time Sirius was ignoring her.

"Absolutely nothing. However Petunia, my sister, and _Vernon, _her husband, had everything to do with it. They decided to play them all at their wedding this summer while I was forced to watch them snog and had to dance with all my creepy cousins for three hours. It effectively ruined the entire genre for me."

"You have a sister? How come she's never at King's Cross with your parents?" Yes, he's met my parents, and yes, I'm pretty sure they like him better than me. But it's okay, because his parents love me more than him _and _Sirius.

"New subject, Potter."

"Oh come on, Lil, that's not fair! You've met everyone in _my _family!" He whined pitifully. I refused to admit that it was kind of adorable.

"You're right, it's not fair. But if life was fair, then there would be no Petunia to avoid talking about, so you'll just have to deal with it." I replied as I resumed my smirking.

The smirk didn't last long. After a few moments I heard him kneel down next to the arm of my chair, and I just knew that if I looked at him he would have that infuriatingly cute pout on his face. I also knew that even after all my years trying to build immunity to that pout, if I looked at it I would break in about 2.3 seconds. If that.

But, alas, it was inevitable. Especially since the insufferable jerk started stroking my arm all soft and sweet while he said, "Pleeeease, Lily?" Yeah, not exactly helping with the whole "secret crush" thing I had going on.

"Ugh, fine James, I'll tell you." I finally surrendered. It wasn't much of a loss; I knew it would happen, since this was, after all, James Potter we were talking about.

"Yes!"

"But only if you stop looking like Sirius when he found out he'd gone through all the eligible girls – and some of the ineligible ones – in our year. It's like watching Bambi's face after the hunter shoots his mom."

"What?"

"I'm really going to need to introduce you to some muggle movies one of these days, if only so you'll understand my jokes. Anyways, do you want to hear about my family drama or not?"

"Yes please," he replied, moving around to kneel in front of me.

I rolled my eyes and began my tale of woe.

"So, like I said, Petunia is my sister. We were best friends when we were little, but then my Hogwarts letter came, and hers didn't. She got jealous, started calling me a freak, and went on to meet Vernon, who is an asshole and a whale – seriously, he's huge. Now they're married, and have moved away to a place where they no longer have to deal with Lily the Freak. End of story."

By this point I was looking down at my lap, so when all I heard was the clock on the mantle ticking, I started to get a little fidgety.

Without looking up, I continued, "So you see, there wasn't really anything in that story worth begging for. Just another case of someone who - ," no, that part wasn't supposed to come out of my mouth. Come on brain; that was supposed to be _inner dialogue. _

"Someone who what?" Triple damn.

"What?" I finally looked up at him and put on my most innocent face; the one that had kept me detention free for seven years, despite Hestia and the Marauders.

"Really Lil?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Immature? Yes. Necessary for my sanity? Also yes. But then he gave me that look. You know the one; every guy has it. The one that lets you know they're not going to let you play stupid this time. So I sighed, and took a leap.

"Just another case of someone who decided to stop loving me. And of course now I sound like an insecure little twit; ignore that, please."

"Everyone's insecure Lily, don't worry about it. And I honestly can't imagine that anyone could ever stop loving you. Especially your sister."

He looked so sincere that I couldn't help but say, "You did."

And then I immediately looked back down at my feet to await my humiliation. Which, as the silence dragged on, seemed more and more inevitable. Quadruple damn.

Finally, I felt James' hand beneath my chin, tilting my head up so that I had no choice but to look in his eyes. His face was blank, and I was wishing with everything I had that I knew what he was thinking.

"And what gave you that idea?"

"Don't try to be cute. Your infatuation with Ellen Stone sent a pretty clear message. Figures that once I finally start to fall for you, you give up on me and start dating some chit from Hufflepuff who's slept with half the school. School, not guys, James. And I – what could you possibly be laughing about right now?"

Because he _was _laughing, and I couldn't really blame him, despite my protests; apparently my brain decided to take things into its own hands tonight.

"You," he replied, still chuckling. "You're adorable, although slightly insane if you think Stone was anything other than a way to make you jealous. And I broke up with her, if you're interested."

His trademark Potter smirk was in place for about a minute before he seemed to register that I was just staring at him with my jaw hanging open.

Finally I responded with, "You're kidding, right?"

That seemed to really shock him. "Wha – "

"I mean, why would that ever seem like a good idea? No self-respecting girl is going to tell a bloke with a girlfriend that she likes him. That's a total bitch move." I was ranting. I knew I was ranting, but I blame it on my brain still being in shock.

"Well I – "

"It was Sirius' idea wasn't it?"

"Would you just shut up and kiss me?" He smiled, leaning slightly closer to me.

If only it was that easy, but my mouth was just _not_ understanding that it could be doing something so much more fun at the moment.

"It's okay, you can tell me if it was him. I won't rat you out. He just may have one of his potions mysteriously explode, or – "

And then I stopped talking, because…well, come on. We all know why I stopped talking.

**Hope you liked it!**


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